SpongeBob, You're Fired! (by Micael Esli)
SpongeBob, You're Fired! is the pilot episode of Season 10, which premiered on November 23, 2016 in the United States and South America simultaneously. This episode appears to be a kind of replacement of the episode "SpongeBob You're Fired" of Season 9, retaining the title and similar plots, something never seen before in the story of SpongeBob SquarePants. In this episode, SpongeBob and Squidward are dismissed from the Krusty Krab, who in turn goes bankrupt due to lack of clients. Confused and dissatisfied, SpongeBob calls Patrick to investigate the shortage of famous restaurant customers, but several obstacles turn the research into a great adventure. Characters * *Jimmy Gus *Shubie *Squidward Tentacles *Tom *Thaddeus *Denis *Paco *Old Man Jenkins *Patrick Star *Mart Kelpper *Orange fish *Frank (red shirt) *Ivy (gray) *Frankie Billy *Fred *Nat Peterson *Lloyd-Rich *Norma Rechid *Clay *Nazz-Mimi *Harold (red fish) *Nathiel Waters *Cara *Eugene H. Krabs *Harv *Dave *Scooter *Harold "Bill" Reginald *Sadie *Nancy Suzy Fish *Abigail Marge Synopsis The episode begins with SpongeBob SquarePants at the Krusty Krab, opening a closet with condiments and then shakes them, to see if there is any content. He makes a happy expression and then opens the mustard condiment and sees that the container is full. Then he picks up the mustard condiment and leaves the kitchen, walking to a table with a sign that says "Must Do". He returns to the kitchen to get the other condiments, and in the meantime, the camera zooms in on Mr. Krabs office. From the inside, he looks desperate, looking at a lot of papers at once, and doing some calculations on his financial calculator. Upon seeing the result, Mr. Krabs begins to cry and wonders why Krabs do not have any clients. At the counter, Squidward is reading a House Fancy magazine with a happy expression, when he gets annoyed with Mr. Krabs opening the office door and crying. SpongeBob leaves the kitchen door and asks why he is crying, and Squidward complements that this crying is ruining his reading to other worlds, with houses and famous respected artists. Mr. Krabs stops crying and shows a pink paper for both of them. He calls SpongeBob, and says that he is fired, shaking him deeply. SpongeBob asks why he's fired him, and Krabs replies that he fired him because he has no more money to keep the restaurant open. Then he tries to console his favorite cooker, but he cries again in the process. He then hands another resignation paper to Squidward, and says he also fired him. Unlike SpongeBob Squarepants, Squidward leaps for joy at the counter and runs off to his house calling SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs "silly" and saying goodbye. Then the scene changes to SpongeBob watching the closing of the Krusty Krab quite sad. He and Mr. Krabs say goodbye and go home. When SpongeBob arrives near his house, Patrick appears with a key and a bag in his hand, and he watches SpongeBob quite sad. He asks why SpongeBob is sad, and he responds in a dramatic way that such an establishment he worked so hard closed his doors on that day. Patrick then associates the closing of the activities of the Krusty Krab with the party that Squidward is doing in the upstairs of his house. Then he notices that he left the TV on at his house and then comes back to turn it off. However, he sits on his sand couch to see Sherlock Holmes, initially frustrating and saddening SpongeBob, but then Patrick has the idea of him and SpongeBob investigating the restaurant's abrupt lack of customers, which worsened for months. They initially deduce that Plankton is behind this, but when they reach the Chum Bucket, they notice that the place is completely destroyed and that Plankton is horrified by the scene. SpongeBob asks what happened, and Plankton says he woke up to the noise of his restaurant doors, thinking that some customer had finally arrived. But then he saw the place being destroyed by Mr. Krabs, who thought that Plankton had guessed the Secret Formula, and then hurt him and completely destroyed his restaurant. SpongeBob and Patrick are horrified and conclude that Plankton really had nothing to do with the Krusty Krab bankrupt, but Patrick interrupts SpongeBob's reasoning by asking how they would know if Plankton was actually speaking the truth, relating his doubt to the multiple Plankton attempts to steal the Formula, and then Mr. Krabs is heard in the background telling Plankton that his punishment is not over. Plankton then shows a recording of his restaurant's security cameras showing that the Chum Bucket was empty when he appeared, which would never happen if he had actually stolen the Formula. Then SpongeBob and Patrick leave the restaurant and go in search of more clues, while Plankton calls Karen, returning from Barg 'N' Mart with a shopping bag, together to mount a fort to prevent Mr. Krabs from attacking them. While SpongeBob and Patrick are searching for clues through the Bikini Bottom, Patrick thinks about other factors that would make the restaurant go bust. Then he collides with an old abandoned Kelpshake building, and after a quick thought, Patrick denies that the Kelp Shakes are causing the bankrupt Krusty Krab to fail. SpongeBob enters the abandoned building, and notices a strange mural with images of several restaurants and an arrow linking them. Patrick is strange about the situation, and then the police come to the scene. The orange police officer says they both need to leave the premises, and then handcuffs are placed on them. After being arrested, both are confused, because they did nothing against the law. So SpongeBob infers that possibly the owner of Kelpshake called the police after realizing that they were trying to sabotage his plans, but the cops correct him by saying that the real reason was that his neighbor called them asking for his arrest for "disturbing peace". So SpongeBob and Patrick wonder why Squidward was interfering with their investigation, but they can not come to a conclusion. So Patrick recommends SpongeBob to think in "Free-form Jazz." After some time thinking in Freeform Jazz, SpongeBob remembers a time when Mr. Krabs accused him of stealing his first dime, irritating him and causing Squidward to resign. So SpongeBob talks to Squidward about his dismissal and notes that he seems to think that everything will fall in the palm of his hand, which is proven right when Squidward loses everything and becomes unemployed. After this flashback, they conclude that Squidward is preventing his investigation because he is afraid of having to work again if everything is resolved. Patrick tries to think of a plan, but gets angry after not getting any plan and hits the wall of the cell, which causes a large hole for them to escape without being noticed. Free again, they both try to know the location of the Kelpshake factory, and Patrick comes to the "shining" conclusion that the Kelpshake factories are in a place that has kelp. SpongeBob then instructs Patrick to go to the Jellyfish Fields. There, they can locate the factory, but upon entering, are prevented by the factory's security guards, but SpongeBob manages to stop them blowing bubbles of soap in their eyes. They enter the factory, but are caught by mechanical grinders and meet the owner, Mart Kelpper, who has launched his new invention, Kelp Mix 2000.4, which uses a blend of jellyfish jelly, Krabby Patty and calabrese pizza, with a drop of Kelp Shake, which according to Kelpper, is not toxic in small amounts. Patrick says that this is like plagiarism, and then they all follow the unhealthy manufacture of the Kelp Mix, which due to excessive use of energy and oil, pollutes the water and mistreats the jellyfish at the same time. While Kelpper is laughing psychotically, SpongeBob manages to break free, but falls, but manages to get caught in a tube. SpongeBob climbs on the tube, runs on the Kelp Mix fabrication mat, but slides into the jelly and ends up falling into the mixing center, just below, which consists of two movable walls that press the food. SpongeBob, with both hands and two feet, pushes the walls against his own direction with great force, initially succeeding. Mart, annoyed, presses his red button button several times until the button breaks, causing the side presses to tighten, making SpongeBob visible veins everywhere on his body. Patrick then manages to break the claw and grabs Kelpper's back. After falling a few meters on the ground, they have a body fight, while SpongeBob manages to overload the machine with hydraulic pressure, causing the mixing center to explode with oil. SpongeBob is at the top of the oil blast and falls to the ground, along with the oil from the mixing center. However, the oil does not seem to end the body fight between Kelpper and Patrick. Kelpper then grabs a torch after having Patrick fall to the ground, apparently wanting to kill him, but SpongeBob launches to save his best friend by being hit on the head and then flung by a standing mat. Patrick looks at SpongeBob, possibly thinking that he had died with the blow of the torch, and then he becomes angry and rises threateningly to Kelpper. Kelpper walks back in fear, but tries to hit him. Patrick grabs Kelpper's torch coldly, then grabs Kelpper by the waist and goes to a corner outside the scene, where several punches are heard. Then Patrick comes back to the scene, making a knot in the blowpipe like a rope, trapping Kelpper in the process. After giving a sigh of anger, Patrick walks up to SpongeBob and is glad to see him alive, but with a lot of headache. Both commemorate the settlement of the case, and Patrick thanks SpongeBob for sacrificing himself to save him, but rebukes him for risking death. They both watch the landscape out the window, but they scare Squidward with a phone in his hand, entering the factory and accusing SpongeBob and Patrick falsely for having destroyed the factory, trying to frame this as "vandalism." The police officers arrive again, and when they notice Squidward's false testimony, they ask why he is accusing the so-called "heroes of nature" and arresting the real culprit, Mart Kelpper. Squidward makes a desperate attempt to stop them, but he can not. Angrily, he has a plan B, running to Mr. Krabs house. SpongeBob and Patrick chase Squidward, but SpongeBob runs more slowly due to severe headaches. Then the scene switches to Mr. Krabs' house, where he is quite sad, looking at a memory album of Krusty Krab, now closed due to bankruptcy. His daughter, Pearl, asks if she can borrow some money from her father, in the expectation that he would say no, but he said yes, surprising Pearl. Then she asks why his father is so sad, and then he responds that he has been thinking of his greed in recent years, and that by irony of fate, he had his restaurant closed. He says that he should be more grateful for what he has instead of wanting more. Pearl then consoles Mr. Krabs saying that all will be well and that he will find a new business. Mr. Krabs sighs and looks out the window, and is surprised to see Squidward, SpongeBob and Patrick running toward his house. He then tries to understand the situation by imagining that they have learned ugly words and will blame each other. However, Squidward arrives first and claims desperately that all that SpongeBob and Patrick are saying is a lie and that the Krabs are still closed, and then Patrick comes home saying that he and his friend, SpongeBob SquarePants, solved the case. Mr. Krabs interrupts him by saying that it was the case of the family Krabs punishment for learning ugly words, but SpongeBob interrupts him by saying that the affair had nothing to do with ugly words but rather with the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs laughs nervously and then says that he does not believe it, and then he gets sad and walks up to the Krusty Krab with SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward. Without noticing the crowd of hungry customers, Mr. Krabs makes a short speech about how ungrateful he is to people, but is interrupted by a hungry customer begging him to open the restaurant. So Mr. Krabs is very happy and embraces SpongeBob and Patrick for solving the case while he cries for joy. SpongeBob puts on his employee's hat after stopping being hugged and heads for the Krusty Krab, but upon unlocking the door, Mr. Krabs says he has a little surprise as they enter the restaurant. Mr. Krabs picks up his wallet and delivers his salary, stating that he will raise his salary by 200%. Then he delivers another amount of money, stating that it was a bonus. He then sends SpongeBob to make the delicious Krabby Patties, and then he walks to the kitchen, cheerfully. Patrick then appears in the restaurant, and Mr. Krabs offers him a job with the same pay as SpongeBob, but Patrick mysteriously refuses, saying that although he lost the fight, he had won the battle. But Mr. Krabs warmly thanks him anyway. Then they become frightened by Squidward ripping a book about "how to accuse an innocent and win" with much contempt. Then they laugh as they watch SpongeBob delivering food to customers after being frightened by Squidward destroying the book. Then he also laughs, ending the episode. Before the credits begin, a message from Nickelodeon says, "We sincerely apologize for producing bad episodes of a legendary cartoon. Nickelodeon Animation Studio." is shown. Production Music } Release *This episode is available on the SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Series DVD and SpongeBob SquarePants Movie - It's a Wonderful Sponge DVD extras. Reception * Unlike the original episode, this episode was praised by critics and fans of the series. The accolades were mainly directed to the creative and unusual premise for an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, in addition to some similar to mystery movies and series. However, the atmosphere of the episode was heavily criticized by Common Sense Media, who claims that the episode is very bleak for fans of SpongeBob and small children, but praised Mr. Krabs' morality lesson about greed and gratitude. Trivia General * This is the first episode to debut in 2016. * Despite the premiere episode in 2016, it was produced since 2014. * This episode has a title similar to an episode called "SpongeBob You're Fired" from Season 9, which features a similar storyline. * This episode marks the return of Stephen Hillenburg to the executive production of SpongeBob SquarePants. * The episode debuted in the United States and South America on the same day. * Before opening in the United States, this episode debuted in Russia one day before, on November 22. * For some reason (possibly due to the negative reception of the original episode), Nickelodeon Italia has a promotional commercial stating that this was the "real" episode of SpongeBob's dismissal. * If we notice correctly, the main characters of this episode (SpongeBob, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Patrick Star and antagonist Mart Kelpper) have their personalities slightly altered. SpongeBob is less crying and a little more intelligent and mature, Patrick is also smarter and now has a detective stance, Squidward tries to do everything so that SpongeBob and Patrick do not solve the case, making him a secondary antagonist, and Mart Kelpper is an antagonist that according to Hillenburg, was made to parody the villains of Disney. * This episode is similar to another episode of investigation called Squid Noir, where SpongeBob and Patrick also do an investigation. However, this episode does not show SpongeBob and Patrick costumed detectives but rather from normal people wondering what happened to their workplace, while Squid Noir is really a satire of the genre's investigation/mystery. * This episode marks the debut of Micael Esli as director and writer and Tim Prendergast and Emily Merl as animation directors. * This is one of the only times SpongeBob cries without causing a flood. * When Patrick enters his home to watch Sherlock Holmes, the kitchen faucet can be seen open at the bottom. This is a reference to Dunces and Dragons. * Patrick is shown to be quite philosophical near the end of the episode, where he says, "I may have lost the fight, but won the battle". * Mr. Krabs does something "new" in some way, reflecting on his greed after the Krusty Krab falls, and being generous by making a 200% increase in SpongeBob's salary with a bonus and still offer a salary identical to Patrick, which in turn refuses. * The part where Mr. Krabs thinks SpongeBob and Patrick have learned new ugly words is a reference to Sailor Mouth. * Mart Kelpper is voiced by Charles Martinet, the same person who dubs the character Mario and other characters from the Nintendo Super Mario franchise. In addition, Kelpper's voice is similar to Toadsworth's (one of the only Super Mario characters that actually speak). Cultural references * Sherlock Holmes is a popular fictional detective who solves various cases. Instead of being a parody, it appears unchanged on Patrick's TV. * When SpongeBob and Patrick arrive at the factory, some posters of a character similar to Super Mario kissing a character similar to Princess Peach are seen in the corners. This may be a reference to the fact that Charles Martinet is dubbing Mart Kelpper. Errors * Charles Martinet has his name erroneously written as Charles Martin'ee'. * Something on the floor blinks twice when SpongeBob brings the mustard condiment. This mistake happens for the second time, but in his shoe. * When the Chum Bucket is shown for the first time, the words "Chum Bucket" will not appear until the next shot. * When Patrick becomes angry and breaks a piece of the prison wall, SpongeBob's legs move from the rest of his body for a second. * Mr. Krabs is slightly taller than normal when he are at home. His eyes are also white rather than green. * The credits at Nickelodeon Italia start after the break, meaning after Nickelodeon's message is left. This confused many Italian viewers, making them think that another episode was over. * When Squidward runs out of the Krusty Krab, he passes over a table near his feet. * A standard Sony Vegas Pro 15 message flashes on the screen for the first few showings of the episode. In subsequent views, the message has been removed. * Hidden legends in the Nicktoons network were shown in Swedish on the first showing. Nicktoons apologized for the inconvenience.